Medical Residency

Residency Program

The Radiation Oncology Residency Program at the University of Washington is a four-year program beginning in the PGY-2 year. The program, which accepts two to three residents annually, is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

The collaboration between UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center , Seattle Children’s and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance represents the largest and only NCI-designated cancer care center in the Pacific Northwest. The institution participates in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and our faculty members contribute to the NCCN guidelines. Fred Hutch pioneered bone marrow transplantation and continues to drive research into mechanisms of cancer development and treatment, with three faculty having been awarded Nobel prizes. We are ranked as the fifth in the nation for cancer care by US News & World Report in 2015-16, and we have the largest radiation oncology residency program in the Pacific Northwest.

UW School of Medicine

UW is also a Tier 1 research university that attracts more research grant funding than any other public university in the nation. In fact, it was ranked No. 2 among all medical schools, both public and private, in receipt of research grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. UW is the largest university in the state of Washington. In 2012, on the Seattle campus alone, UW employed 3,752 instructional faculty to serve 27,838 undergraduate students and 13,308 graduate student and professional students.

UW School of Medicine, serves as the only medical school under agreement among the five states region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) known as the WWAMI region. The Department of Radiation Oncology is part of the UW School of Medicine, and part of its overall institutionally distributed oncology program.

Program Structure

Clinical rotations are organized in three-month blocks by disease site, which allows residents to learn a disease site in depth. Most rotations follow an apprenticeship model with a 1:1 attending/resident model.

Residents take weekly home pager call. The on-call resident handles inpatient consults specific to radiation treatment and after-hours patient questions. There is always an attending on call with the resident to provide assistance as necessary. Additionally, the on-call resident will be on site at University of Washington Medical Center for any weekend treatments.

Sites of Practice

Residents rotate through a wide range of clinical radiation therapy technologies all located in Seattle, including the brand new SCCA Proton Therapy at UW Medicine Northwest Hospital & Medical Center, and the world’s only clinical cyclotron located at UWMC. Residents spend most of their time at UWMC, which is adjacent to the UW main campus, and SCCA at South Lake Union three miles away. Residents round out their experience by spending time at UW Medicine Harborview Medical Center in downtown Seattle and at the Veteran’s Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System – Seattle Division.

Resident Education

Clinical didactics are organized into blocks by disease site. Each block includes lectures, case sessions, journal clubs, and hands-on dosimetry/contouring sessions. Our radiation biology and medical physics courses are led by nationally recognized scientists. Residents are given protected time from clinical duties for morning lectures and from 8-11 am each Friday for a block of didactics.

Dr. Kent Wallner organizes a monthly journal club, during which residents learn to critically evaluate the literature. Resident education is enhanced by case sessions with visiting professors and monthly Grand Rounds. Protected time is also provided for ASTRO/ARRO webinars and eContouring sessions.

Residency Life

The UW radiation oncology program is among the best in the country. With UW training, I developed the broadest range of skills in general oncologic management, external beam radiation, brachytherapy, and stereotactice radiation.